I love the older docs! When you've known them 25 years they know they can trust your judgment. Sometimes in CVICU you can call and say, "Hey, this is what's going on with your patient and I ordered XYZ. Is that okay?" It's always okay!
Reminds me of the time I was rounding with one of our newer docs. Pt was constipated so we needed a supp order. Doc says "glycerine PRN" and I'm like " no, glycerine is crap. Give me a dulcolax! Works much better"
and shes "oh, I learn so much from you older nurses!" I had to sit down. She tried to change it to "experienced" but too late. Good thing I like her!
Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.
Changes in beds.....
Iron lungs phased out in 60's. Had to be at least 100 times I bumped my foot/ankles on foot of bed manual cranks, still see them in homecare.
Learned to use Stryker frame:
Then Circo-electric bed:
Advanced to air fluidized bed with TONS of beads -- "Clinitron bed" major supplier
"A bed consisting of a mattress filled with tiny glass or ceramic spheres that are suspended by a continuous flow of warm air. The patient floats†on the mattress with only minimal penetration".... worked well for pressure ulcers until tiny glass spears made their way to top surface and stuck to to skin.
You hear all these complaints that caps and starched whites (skirts) were cumbersome, got in way, etc.... Yet scores of military nurses managed to provide care on ships and other transport wearing just that.
Tearing up my legs on the bed rails if they had not been installed high enough on the bed frame...
Measuring sputum:barf02:
Hiding in the sluice when the DON came for rounds. Always knew when she was coming because she was the ONLY nurse in the entire hospital that wore heels - we would hear her clip clopping from a mile away...
Doing rounds with the DON when she found you hiding....you had to give report on every patient on the ward. Thank God back then we had the little signs over the bed that told you the patient's name and age - no HIPAA to be concerned about. I made up the rest and fortunately for me the patients usually played along with my fabricated diagnosis and number of days post-op...
3-year Diploma nursing schools: wearing a stiff, starched blue uniform w/ a white bib; very spic+span white nursing shoes; wearing only a blue or white sweater OR ELSE demerits !!; respecting the doctors and travelling to each patient's room with each doctor; no hospital-based physicians; NO computers--paper charts w/ tin covers; nurses who gave Back Rubs; nurses who passed out breakfast, lunch and dinner trays; wearing a nursing CAP which would always fall off; wearing ONLY A DRESS uniform to work, no pants; working only in a hospital based facility--no case management, no working from home employment, no careers--you got married, had a child, stayed home until the child was ready for school + then returned to work !! And finally, retirement at last !!
We never had disposable supplies so had enema cans with hoses, glass syringes with reusable metal needles that we would have to sharpen to get rid of the burrs on the points. Also having an autoclave in the dirty utility room to autoclave supplies for a treatment. No air conditioning so we would place fans with ice in front of them and ice bags in patient armpits to fight fevers. Telemetry was a monitor at the end of the bed. We had wards at Mass.General Hosp of 12-15 beds and a Med room with bottles of prescription drugs to put your meds into a tray with doily cups in front of the slit for the Med card, different colors for each shift. We had clamps on IV tubing along with roller clamps and counted the drip rates. Also placing butterfly needles and armbands for IV's. We had to scrub the blood off dirty instruments in the utility sink and then autoclave them for the next patient. I miss giving back rubs to patients on the evening shift because of no time nowadays. Ah, I call them the "light dark ages!"
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
Changes in beds.....
Iron lungs phased out in 60's. Had to be at least 100 times I bumped my foot/ankles on foot of bed manual cranks, still see them in homecare.
Learned to use Stryker frame:
Then Circo-electric bed:
Advanced to air fluidized bed with TONS of beads -- "Clinitron bed" major supplier
"A bed consisting of a mattress filled with tiny glass or ceramic spheres that are suspended by a continuous flow of warm air. The patient floats†on the mattress with only minimal penetration".... worked well for pressure ulcers until tiny glass spears made their way to top surface and stuck to to skin.
Modern rotating Roto-Proton bed:
I remember the Clinitron beds. I wasn't the only nurse who had regular bouts of conjunctivitis from those little beads getting under a contact lens! But they were really handy as far as changing difficult dressings. You'd get someone to help you position the patient in such a way as the area to be dressed was accessible (backs, butts, etc.) and then turn off the bed. The beads would mold themselves to the patient's countours, then settle in so the patient would stay put. You did the dressing change and then turned the bed back on. The patient would re-float on the beads.
Unfortunately, many patients had hallucinations of flying.
sevensonnets
975 Posts
I love the older docs! When you've known them 25 years they know they can trust your judgment. Sometimes in CVICU you can call and say, "Hey, this is what's going on with your patient and I ordered XYZ. Is that okay?" It's always okay!